this is al jazeera coming to you live from new york. this is del walters. here are today's top stories. defense secretary chuck hagel leading the wreath laying ceremony in washington in honor of the victims of yesterday's shootings. there are new details emerging about the man suspected of carrying out the massacre. learning the realities of rebuilding in the wake of the colorado floods. flags will be flying at

half-staff nationwide through friday night in honor of those who were killed in washington on monday. a lone gunman walking through a packed naval yard building opening fire and in the end killing some 12 people. in the moments of chaos that followed, the gunman identified as 34-year-old aaron alexis injured eight others before being shot and killed by the police. the motive is still unknown, and the recovery for those injured is now just beginning. ♪ just a short while ago, senior defense officials including defense secretary chuck hagel laying this wreath at the u.s. navy memorial honoring the shooting victims. the wreath is next to the statue of the lone sailor who represents all of those who have ever served, are serving now or have yet to serve in the united states navy. hagel calling the shooting a tragic day for the department of defense, the nation's capital and the nation. we have teams who are covering every angle of this story,

though we begin with randall pinkston in washington at the navy yard where the search for a motive and front and center along with renewed concerns about security. what's the mood there, today? >> del, as you hear from the sound of "taps," there is such sadness in washington along with shock that this incident could happen in what's called one of the most secure facilities in the city. investigators have already talked to employees at the navy yard in the facility yesterday in the vicinity of the shootings who may have seen alexis moments before the shooting or may have seen him in the course of the gunfire. he was also part of the team of workers in and out of the navy yard reportedly for the last month. investigators have also enter rouxed at least four co-workers. a fifth, we don't know his status. they were all staying at a nearby hotel.

they also located alexis' vehicle and are obtaining a search warrant to go through the car. this investigation has spread to new york. he's from brooklyn and they're talking to friends and neighbors. and it's den incidents with weas alexis was involved in. one incident was in seattle, washington where he fired his weapon into the tires of a car reportedly because he was angry with workers parking too close to his apartment. in texas another incident with a weapon firing it through a ceiling of his apartment. there alexis said he was trying to clean his weapon. associated press is reporting that navy authorities are saying that he has been treated for depression and paranoia, that he has sleep disorders, that he's also had anger management issues. he was not, however, declared mentally unfit. he was discharged from the navy in part because of those incidents with weapons, and his

discharge status was not honorable but was called general, which allowed him somehow to obtain clearance to become a defense contractor that allowed him to get access to this building. del. >> randall pinkston thank you very much live from washington, d.c. al jazeera's mark schneider has been following the story from texas. he joins us there live. mark, you've been talking to people who have a sense of who the motive might have been. what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, just a vague sense. they say, you know, alexis could get angry from time to time. one of the things he was recently angry about was not getting paid in a timely fashion from the naval contractor job in japan. his check wasn't coming on time and wasn't as much as he thought it would be. he mentioned he was angry with

the government. if that's the motive, we don't know for sure. that's one thing his friends were talking about this morning. >> mark, we read reports on his two arrests for gun-related offenses. did alexis show any violent tendencies according to his friends? >> reporter: not according to his friends. they say when he got upset, he would often get withdrawn and maybe go back to his room at the apartment he was sharing with one of his friends and play video games. sometimes he would all night long. one of his friends told me he was very aware that he was having trouble sleeping, but other than that, wasn't aware of any major problems. >> what are you hearing about the possibility that he may have suffered from some form of mental illness? >> reporter: yeah. we read about that, too. possible mental illness, hearing voices, not sleeping well. again, the only thing they're aware, the friends i talked to and some have known him for several years said he was indeed having trouble sleeping, but sometimes would play those video

games until 8:00 in the morning. he was definitely having issues, but they weren't aware of him being diagnosed with a mental illness, del. >> mark schneider live from fort worth, texas. thank you very much. house lawmakers will hold a moment of silence in honor of the victims when they resume work a little later today. the rain has stopped for now in colorado, and the helicopters are resuming the search for victims of flooding. nearly 1200 people have been rescued from areas cut off by the roads washed out by the high waters. eight people are now dead and hundreds of others are still missing and unaccounted for. some evacuees are making their way back to their homes to assess the damage and hundreds more are waiting to be evacuated. rob reynolds caught up with families that found their neighborhood in ruins. >> reporter: relentless and powerful, the water flowed down. paying no heed to the fragile works of mankind. roads, houses, possessions,

lives. the water moved and hayden court was just in its way. jennifer moved into her new house on hayden court only six weeks ago. down in her basement there's a thick layer of mud and foul river smell, irreplaceable tokens lay in ruin in the muck. >> that's all gone. oh, yeah. it's just gone. >> reporter: she has no flood insurance, but even with all the damage, she sees redemption. >> i'm safe, you know. allison, my sister, is safe. my dog is safe and the people in this neighborhood are safe, which what's really important? it's not this stuff. >> reporter: up and down hayden court, wrecked cars and huge chunks of asphalt and toppled

lampposts testify to the power of thursday's flood. people are taking stock and figuring out what to do next. emergency workers cleared debris. rowan robertson helped his parents scoop muck from their garage. nina larson hobbling around with an injured leg was at home with her 13-year-old son and one of his friends when the water started swirling up fast. she saw her car swept away. >> it was a time span of probably two to three minutes from when the water hit the bottom of the tires on our durango, went all the way up. we just watched it within three minutes go over the durango and take it down the road. >> reporter: larson and the two boys were trapped for eight hours before rescuers came for them in a boat. in the meantime, her husband, jeff, swam across flooded fields battling the heavy current to get to his family. >> it was kind of weird.

you just have to get to your family. >> reporter: emergency workers say they have the power back on in a day or two, but the repair work and the cleanup will take a lot longer than that. none of the families who live here on hayden court will ever forget the day the waters rose. rob reynolds, al jazeera, longmont, colorado. >> with an in-depth look on how the floods impacted the area, we have a report. >> actually, nine inches of rain fell last thursday, and through the weekend rain continued to fall as several areas of low pressure drifted across the region, and that moisture pushed in out of the south. look at the match behind me. high pressure is in control here. today we have a great deal of sunshine across many areas including boulder that was just devastated with that heavy rain. it's hard to watch that video and not feel bad for the families out there. high pressure is in control

today, and that means the wind push in out of the west as opposed to out of the south. we have beautiful, sunny skies. we have flood warnings in effect because all the rivers across the area, the south platteriver continues to river continues to rise. as a result we see flood warnings in effect across portions of colorado into new mexico. that's the story today. that's the story tomorrow. all the way from laramie county back towards sedgwick. folks need to uprecaution and the rescue workers need to be careful around the region. because the winds push in out of the west, we have elevated red flag threat. we could see some fires erupt. most of the rain was concentrated further across the east. akros the west still quite dry across portions of nevada. we want folks out there to make sure they keep fires contained because we don't want to see any major fires erupting across these areas.

back to you now, del. >> thank you very much. on the weather front, mother nature having her way with mexico. two tropical storm systems drenching the nation delivering devastating rains and flash flooding there. this is a stat that drivers are none too happy about, paying lots more at the pump for a long, long time. >> just to be able to defend the title for once will be awesome, and i've done so well here the past few times i've played, getting to the semis or finals. it's been really, really exciting. i'm happy that i've been able to consistently do well here. >> australian cricket captain michael clarke led his team to victory against england, scoring his first tonne. england were bowled out for 227

in pursuit of australia score of 315/7. >> and now take a look at this young man who has more than a few expectations to live up to. this is argen tendulkar son of sachi, in his father the highest run scorer.

antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours. the victims in yesterday's shooting at the navy yard

. aaron alexis was arrested at least twice for gun-related offenses and discharged from the navy in 2011. he was a subkrtor by hewlett for a navy i.t. project which police believe may be the reason he had access to the navy yard. health care workers are trained to save lives, but what happens when the people they try to help actually become the aggressors themselves? we look at workplace violence in all places the health industry. >> reporter: every second counts. these are the words hospital emergency workers live by. a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death. but in some cases those trained to deal with emergency health needs can go from health care worker to victim. roy is an emergency technician at beaumont hospital in royal oak, michigan, a suburban medical center outside of detroit. he spent nearly ten years here

assisting the sick and injured, but there are days when he has to defend himself against the very people he's trying to help. >> sometimes they come in. they're drunk. they're sleeping when they come in, and they wake up and they're combative. they start to get out of the bed and running around and throwing punches. you just never know. >> reporter: on a national scale, workplace assault is higher among health care workers than any other industry. this doctor is the chief of emergency medicine at beaumont hospital. he says a recent study by the journal of emergency medicine finds that although all medical professionals are at risk, nurses are in particular danger. 25% of nurses reported being assaulted more than 20 times over three years, and verbally abused more than 200 times over the same period. >> our study actually found that there were no differences when you looked at gender, race, occupation other than nurses were victims more often than physicians.

>> reporter: more than 20 states have some type of legislation that helps protect health care workers against workplace violence. the state of michigan is not one of them but could be. right now lawmakers are working on a bill. until michigan legislators act, health professionals like roy are taking every precaution in the field where there's no room for mistakes. >> taking care of these patients is a great thing every day, and it's frustrating that we have to deal with certain things. that's the passion of working in an emergency center. you never know what you get. that's the best thing about the emergency center. >> reporter: doctors and nurses are aware there's no magic bullet when it comes to preventing violence mountain workplace and the work zone can be a battle zone. with the help of education, training, and enhanced security, they hope to prevent anyone from getting hurt or worse killed. al jazeera, detroit. an egyptian court up held the order to freeze the as sets of the top leaders of the muslim brotherhood and a former islamic

militant group. most of those on the list are already in detention. they're awaiting trial mainly for insighting violence and and murder over last several months. it happened after the ousting the mohamed morsi. a blast on the syria/turkey border. several people were hurt but no word on any fatalities. a car bomb exploded in the northwestern syrian province. it's now under control of the rebe rebels fighting against the asass regime. a dubious anniversary for drivers. aaa said today marks the 1,000th consecutive day that gas prices average more than $3 a gallon. that has never, ever happened before. the streak began on december 23, 2010, and aaa adds the day of

gas below $3 a gallon could well be a thing of the past. chairman bernanke and other officials are holding what may be one of the most important meetings there in years. they announce tomorrow when they will pull back on the bond-buying program that's aimed to help prop up the economy. analysts say ending the easy policy will likely drive interest rates higher. be sure to stick with al jazeera tomorrow for the fed decision and what it means for you. the fed likes to keep a close eye i inflation, and right now it seems under control. the government says consumer prices barely moved in august. over the last 12 months inflation has been about 1.5%. that's mostly because of rising costs for housing and health care. it's only september, but there are already concerns about christmas shopping. retail researcher shopper track expects sales during the holiday season to rise 2.4%.

that is less than 2011 and 2012. they believe fewer of you will visit stores and chose to buy online. microsoft gave their investors a raise. the company is boosting its dividend to a nickel to 28 cents. that is a 22% increase. microsoft also announcing a $40 billion stock buy-back program. and it was unveiled last week and it happened on friday, but already the new apple iphones will be hitting the stores on friday. today the iphone 5s and lower-priced 5c will be available at 8:00 a.m. local time on friday. shares of apple are down more than 10% since they were introduced. after nearly 20 months on its side, the costa concordia is now upright. italian authorities will begin to search for the two people that died when the vessel capsized last year. al jazeera reports from giglio island. >> reporter: it took all of the

day and most of the night, but after a tense 19 hours, the costa concordia was back upright, though stimuliing low in the water. the cruise ship was wrestled off the rocks and resting on a specially built underwater platform exposed the full extent of the first time. >> you can see it's molding itself around the rocks. so all the main structural damage, that happened in february, march of last year. we were expecting it to be harder to tear it off, but actually she came off quite nicely. >> reporter: the residents of giglio gave the engineers' a hero's welcome. >> translator: i was overjoyed. it's unbelievable the amount of work in an operation. >> translator: i'm happy they

pull it upright. i'll be happier once they move it out of here. >> reporter: this phase is over, but the search of the two victims never found begins. divers can explore parts of the ship that were previously impassable, and then the 1,500 cabins will be searched and the passengers belonging to what's left of them recovered. so far the operation has cost $800 million, a figure that will grow. crews say insurance wouldn't cover all of the costs. >> the next step is the refloating of the ship. so it will take some time because now we have brought the vessel in the upright position. what we have to do is put a number of sensors on the starboard side to equalize it. then eventually we will refloat the vessel with the help of putting them altogether. >> reporter: this floating city

will sit in giglio's waters for at least another eight months,' reminder of the captain and an incredible achievement of the engineers. at least 40 are dead after two powerful storms converged on mexico forcing massive evacuations there. the twin storms of ingrid and manuel have affected two-thirds of that country. they have also created some of the worst flooding there in decades. the popular pacific resort town of acapulco was hardest hit, the water rised 10 feet. about 40,000 tourists were stranded. two devastating storms, life-threatening storms, still life-threatening given that we deal with heavy rain. the rain is going into southern portions of texas anywhere from brownsville down into corpus christi and also into

veracruz where heavy rain comes into the region. we have heavy flash flood warnings across portions of southern texas. that's the story today and tomorrow and the next 36 hours. i want folks to use precautions. the two storms, manuel, a remnant low and also ingrid that pushes into the mountains of mexico. they need to use precaution out there. what you saw in the video we just watched was the floodwater continues to trickle down through the mountains, because right now ingrid is really over the mountains. that forces the floodwater to rush across the city and into the city, and that's why we have the devastation. as i said, we have flash flood watches and partneriwarnings in through southern portions of texas lasting through the last several days. in colorado we had to deal with that during the last couple of days. certainly last thursday whenever nine inches of rain fell across

the region. now we have high pressure in control. so plenty of sunshine expected through the day. let me explain what happened in mexico to you with this graphic that we have. what happens is the clouds come in. the clouds travel up and over the mountains, and whenever they reach the top of the mountain, there's a lot of cold air up there. that sucks the moisture out and causes the rain to fall over the mountains. that trickles down into the city, and that's when you get the rushing floodwater. that's why we have flash flood warnings in effect today, although the rain is not falling. we continue to deal with that rain, that river rising across the south platte river. that's why we're westerned for folks that rushing water is still a problem around the boulder area. back to you now. still ahead, bikers hitting the road, but not where you might expect to find them. we're going to introduce you to the harley-loving men of baghdad.

to honor the victims in yesterday's navy yard shooting, defense secretary chuck hagel laid a wreath at the u.s. navy memorial plaza. the wreath is next to the lone sailor statue, which represents

anyone who has ever been part of what is called the united states navy family. seven of those kills have been identified. police will release more names throughout the day. those names include michael arnold, sylvia frazier, kathleen guard, john roger johnson, frank koehler, pan, did it and ken knit proktor. after massive flooding the rains have stopped in colorado allows rescue efforts to resume. nearly 1800 people have been rescued from areas cut off by roads washed away completely. some residents have begun to make their way back to their flood-damaged homes. biker gangs in baghdad. iraq's capital works to rebuild following nearly a decade of war, some young men are burning time by burning rubber. like many youth the world

over, showing off comes naturally. this loosely affiliated group of young men call themselves the baghdad knights, and in this city of checkpoints and car bombs, an empty stretch of road is a rare thing and they take full advantage to let off steam and perform some tricks. their leader calls himself a reference to the martial arts superstar. by weekday he's a photographer, but the weekend is all about the bike and finding something for him and his friends to do. >> we set up the club because there is nothing else to do. the government doesn't provide us with places to go. this provides us a chance to get together and enjoy our bikes. >> some of the bikes reach high speeds and all the tricks are self-taught. it's risky safety-wise as well. using the road like this is technically illegal, and the authorities harass the baghdad knights quite a lot, which means

they often have to change location. he says despite what the group calls harassment, they'll never give up their bikes. >> translator: it's running in my blood. it's a hobby since i was a child. no matter what the police do to us, i will never quit. >> reporter: getting decent bikes and equipment into iraq is difficult and expensive, but every penny gives them a sense of identity in this post-war but far from peaceful place. these men are old enough to remember thes worst of the war. bikes give them a chance to think about something other than violence and security and offers them a reason to look forward to the weekend. al jazeera, baghdad. >> wait until they hear about the i-95 corridor. we're live in new york. i'm del walters. as always for news updates all

day, head to aljazeera.com. >> reza aslan, author and scholar. he a muslim who was once an evan evangelical christian. >> when a muslim who starts to write about jesus, all of a sudden the knives comes out. >> the life and times of jesus of nazareth. reza aslan. pleasure to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> look at the conversation you started with this book,